The End
by ArchMagusNorth
Summary: One Shot! Tragedy/Angsty! Harry and his Auror squadron is deployed to tackle a mysterious attack on Diagon Alley by dark cloaked figures. They are quickly faced with a situation that puts the future of all life in world at the brink of extinction.


The End

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Only this plot line.

Summery: One Shot! Horror! Harry and his Auror squadron are deployed to tackle a mysterious attack on Diagon Alley by dark cloaked figures. They are quickly faced with a situation that puts the future of all life in world at the brink of extinction.

_**The End**_

"_I grow tired of this filthy little charade they call resistance. I am stronger then these puny little creatures. The Demon within me yearns blood and vengeance against the living. Woe be to those who resist me. I shall make their death long and painful. Bow to me and their death shall be swift. The end is nigh!"_

ooo000ooo

"Goddamn it, Hang in there, Zach" a very flustered Harry Potter cried out heavily supporting his team member, "We are almost there. Don't give up on me now buddy. I know you are strong enough to withstand a few hexes"

"Neville, take Zach and go inside first. Than you Ernie, with Hannah. She can't make it herself. Get inside the bank and ask the goblins for emergency medical potions for humans. We will follow you. Do not venture into the rest of the bank until we get there", Twenty year old Harry Potter barked his orders.

They just got out of the battle at Diagon Alley. Twenty members of Harry's Auror squadron left the Ministry as soon as he received information that the figures in black cloaks were attacking the center of economics in Wizarding world. Only seven made it behind the wards of Gringotts bank.

What met them at Diagon Alley was nothing less than hell in a fruit basket. The black figures were rampaging through the street cursing and killing mercilessly anyone they could see. They didn't seem to have any rhythm or order to their attack, but merely kill every person in sight. Men, women, children fell alongside goblin warriors as they tried to defend themselves. Even running away doesn't seem to be an option anymore. The Goblins were guarding their establishment, but it was quite clear that they were pushed back. Hard!

As the initial shock wore off the young warriors, the coldness set in. Dementors. The cloaked soul sucking wraiths were flying overhead, and before Harry or his group could get a bearing, they lost two of their numbers. After Hogwarts, Harry and Ron quickly rose through the ranks of Aurors to be Generals in the squadron. Which meant, they were the ranking officers of the little rescue operation underway. They launched an offensive attack, spreading into a well trained formation.

Immediately they faced their first challenge. Their offensive spells seem to have a little or no effect on the attacking figures. They found the reason when one of the black cloaked figure was taken down. What they saw startled them to their core. The attackers they thought to be the renegade Death Eaters were actually some sort of humanoid creatures, with blood red eyes and pale skin. The one whom they took down had the features of one Draco Malfoy, but was definitely not their school-time rival. In addition, they saw some sort of a charmed shielding amulet around his neck, that did not allow any offensive spells to impact the wearer.

_Damn!_ Harry thought. "We can not face them unless our offensive attack has some effect. We have to go for High-powered spells and unforgivables" his second in command Ron Weasley advised Harry. But the problem was that, such spells took their toll on the magic user. Meaning, they would be out of commission very quickly.

_What choice do we have?_ Harry thought as he gave the order. For a little while they seem to have succeeded in pushing back the Death Eaters. But then, the Dementors attacked from behind crumbling their war formation to pieces. They were pushed on towards Gringotts, where for some time they found protection behind ancient goblin wards.

As they were walking into the goblin Bank, a lone figure in black robes apparated just outside the goblin wards. As Harry looked on, the figure turned towards the wards and broke into a sprint. If the person had ill intent, the wards would not let them pass.

Just as the figure was crossing the ward line, several dark spells impacted the person from behind, and the figure dropped to the ground. A mane of bright blonde hair fell out. _Luna! _Harry immediately recognized. Quite obviously, the brown haired man beside him also recognized her, as Neville ran towards his girlfriend. He dragged her inside the wards, and supported her against his shoulder.

"What happened, Luna? You were supposed to be at St. Mungo's. Why are you here?" Harry asked hurriedly.

Luna coughed and spit out some blood as she gasped for air. The dark spells were affecting her badly.

"No.. More… St. Mung…_cough…cough…_Demons" She choked out as Neville helped her take the healing potions from his emergency field kit.

Blood left the face of both Harry and Ron.

"Ginny" Harry whispered as he looked fearfully at Luna, begging for any answer except the obvious. The one he did not want to hear.

Luna shook her head slowly, and she held tight onto Neville as she broke into tears. "I was the last. They left no survivors. They even demolished the building"

There was a loud crack as the first level goblin wards fell. Whatever was attacking them, was not letting them off that easily. Choking back the tears, Harry got into the battle mode.

"George. Katie. Recon!" He turned to Ron, "Get hold of Hermione or any unspeakables in the ministry, if you can" He turned to the Neville "Take Luna over to the rest of the injured and try helping everybody"

"EVERYBODY! If you have any information of what can be done, now would be a good time to come forth"

There were hardly twenty survivors that made it into the goblin wards. The great economic center of wizarding Britain officially turned into the site of biggest massacre in the history of the nation.

"There is no way" Harry heard a quiet raspy voice of a goblin. He quickly turned towards the voice, and found the aging manager of Gringotts, Ragnok.

"What do you mean, Elder Ragnok? Do you know anything about this?"

"There is no escaping. Sooner, than later, they will break inside, and they will kill everyone"

This elicited a gasps and panicked cries from around the hall.

"Now, see here. Let us not cause any more panic than what's already in our hands. One way or the other, we will fight this and get out. Alive" Harry said with passion, looking directly into Ragnok's eyes.

Elder Ragnok gave out a cold heartless laugh. "I like the passion you have for saving people, young human, but you have no idea what you are up against."

"Do you have any idea?" Harry asked with eyes narrowed.

"Evil, young human" Ragnok said in his calm raspy voice. "Evil in its purest form. Long has been written in goblin history about the great evil that tried to wipe out life on this planet. It was said to have taken a sacrifice of over a hundred wizards and a hundred goblins to contain the evil."

Ragnok paused. "And?" Harry prompted.

"And what human? Humans happened. They being as power-hungry as they were, tried to bend its will. Use its power. They opened a small window to communicate with the evil on the other side"

"A window?"

"Covered by a black veil. Deep within the bowels of the place where modern wizarding ministry resides"

Realization hit Harry immediately.

"The veil of death!!" Harry exclaimed.

Elder Ragnok nodded. "Looks like another power-hungry human let the _cat_ out of the _box_"

Before he could say anything more, the Floo network activated, and people began tumbling out. Minister Shacklebolt, three figures in unspeakable robes, a very injured tiny charms professor Flitwick, and Hogwarts nurse Poppy Pomfrey.

_It was quite an unlikely blend of people that walked in. There's gotta be a story behind._ Harry thought.

"Hermione!" Ron rushed over to his girlfriend and grabbed her in a hug. Upon closer look, everyone seemed in a very morbid mood. Hermione and Poppy were crying. _For quite sometime, from the looks._ Harry thought.

"What happened?" Harry cried out to the bald headed minister, who took reins of British wizarding world, after Voldemort's defeat two years earlier.

"The ministry fell" Shacklebolt said quietly. "We are the only survivors"

"What? To whom?" Harry demanded.

"We do not quite know. I was hoping the unspeakables could shed some light" he said turning to Hermione and her colleagues.

"We do not know ourselves" one of the unspeakables replied. "Draco Malfoy was working on the Veil of Death. He seemed very excited today morning. He said, he had a major breakthrough in his research. Whatever he did, caused something to come out of the veil, and this is the result. If we could find him, we can get more intel. But that may be difficult", he finished.

_Damn!_ Harry cursed. Elder Ragnok was right.

"Well, we did meet Malfoy earlier. Or what was left of him" Ron replied.

_Make that a Double damn, with whipped cream on top!_ Harry thought bitterly.

"But what is Flitwick and Poppy doing here?" Ron asked Hermione, which caused her to cry harder.

"Oh Ron! There is no Hogwarts anymore. Whatever this is, it attacked Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and killed everyone. Everyone, Ron. Only Flitwick and Poppy made it out barely. They are all gone Ron. Entire student body of Hogwarts, McGonagall, Vector, Sinstra, Slughorn… Everyone… Dead"

A huge crash of second level of wards around Gringotts greeted the news. Nobody could say anything. Shocked to learn the fate of their beloved school. A school that was full of innocent gaggle of children, now mercilessly killed at the whim of this one evil. _What is happening!!_

"And there is more, Ron, Harry" Hermione said choking back tears.

Dread got hold of Harry's heart when he heard that. _What more could be worse than this?_

"They attacked Ottery St. Catchpole" Hermione said quietly choking on her tears.

"Mom. Dad. My brothers" Ron said in dread.

"Arthur just barely made it to the ministry from the attack. He tried to save everyone. But it seems there were too many, Ron. Too many demons, and they all fell."

"Where is he now? How is he?" Ron asked urgently.

"He didn't make if for long after he arrived, Ron." Hermione fell into a new bout of tears at this, hugging her boyfriend tightly.

Harry stood beside his two friends as he heard what Hermione was saying. It was so surreal. Just that day morning, mere hours earlier, he left his house, loving family, and beautiful girlfriend when he went for work. Now they were all dead. Pretty much the entire Wizarding nation of Britain is dead. No news from the muggle world. If what happened in Diagon Alley was anything to go by, Muggles stood even lesser chance against this evil.

The world seemed so empty, all of a sudden. The Ministry fell. Hogwarts fell. St. Mungo's fell. Hogsmeade fell. Ottery St. Catchpole fell. There was no stronghold remaining in the wizarding world. Suddenly, Harry realized that he and the few humans barricaded in Gringotts may be the only survivors in the entire nation. _The world really seems empty now_, he thought hollowly.

Harry walked over to Elder Ragnok, and asked, "What else can you tell me about this, Elder? What does it want? How can it be fought?"

"It wants nothing less than absolute distruction, human. Where there is life, it brings death. Where there is emotion, it gets snubbed. It brings destruction everywhere, and never gets sated. I doubt if, even the evil itself knows what it wants, except to kill. As for fighting it, evil begets evil, human. You can not fight it with any fire or destructive force. So how to fight it now? To be frank, I do not know." There was a loud boom as the last line of wards fell around Gringotts. "Whatever ideas we have, I daresay, we shall be putting them to test shortly. Don't you think so, Human?" Ragnok said as he stood up heavily.

"How is it that there are so many of whatever those things are?" Ron asked from the side.

"They are turning their victims, of course" The casual way in which such a profound statement was made, paused everyone on their tracks for a second.

_Oh my!_ Harry thought. _What to do?_

All the goblins in the bank, numbering close to twenty, moved behind Ragnok as he pulled out his scimitar.

"Wait! You can not possibly think of fighting them all, Elder" Hermione cried out behind Harry.

"We, the goblins, protect Gringotts, Human. We protect it from any and every adversary, until the last goblin falls. That is our code" Ragnok said looking sharply at the trio.

Harry turned to Ron with an enquiry in his eyes. Understanding his question, Ron looked around, and nodded his head, sighing heavily.

"Then we shall assist you in whatever way we can" Ragnok looked at Harry in surprise. With a short life ahead of him, Harry had the rare pleasure of watching the gob smacked expression on a goblin's face.

With a smile, Harry continued, "Fate brought us together today, Elder. And together we shall see where it will lead us"

Harry turned to the remaining humans in the Gringotts. They were a scared bunch of people who had absolutely no clue why they were in a situation they could not understand, nor could they think of why they deserved to be in that situation.

"Attention, everybody. Listen to me." People who were murmuring among themselves turned to Harry. "The Gringotts wards have fallen, and whatever is outside, is minutes away from coming here." Gasps broke out. Harry thought for a bit about giving them too much information lest they cause a mass panic. _Well, with a little under thirty people in a lobby minutes away from being killed, mass panic sure is not a problem, _Harry reasoned.

"The Goblins are launching an offensive on them, and my Auror squadron is going to help them. If you think you can help us, I want every able wand to come along and stand by our side."

"But we are not warriors, we can not fight" someone protested.

"I know. I understand. But the way news is at the moment, we may very well be the last surviving humans in Great Britain. And I refuse to go down without a fight" Harry said with conviction.

"What if we just stay put, or go deeper into Gringotts. Help may be coming" someone else argued.

Harry gave the same cold laugh elder Ragnok had given short while earlier. "The Ministry, Hogwarts, Gringotts, every major wizarding powerhouses have fallen. I very much doubt if any help would be coming our way"

Finally, after a few minutes of argument, the injured were moved to the surface level vault of Gringotts, and Neville chose to stand guard over them. The remaining walked out to stand by Harry and the goblins, as the evil minions of the power banged at the massive doors.

Within minutes the doors gave away and the minions rushed inside the lobby like ants rushing out of an anthill. The sheer number of dark minions pouring in through the small hole in the door was simply outrageous. The humans and Goblins fought valiantly, side-by-side, fighting not for profit or glory, but to preserve their right to exist.

Many minions fell at the scimitars of Goblins, and the magical power of humans. For the first time that day, Hermione, Harry and his aurors offensive had some effect. There were many fallen figures of dark minions scattered over the lobby of the bank. But, as many as they fell, there were more pouring into the lobby.

The first casuality on the human side was Filius Flitwick, whose tiny frame, which was used for his advantage in many a duel became his disadvantage when the offensive line fell back. Flitwick, who was already injured at Hogwarts was slow to move back, and was jumped over by many dark demons.

From there on, the battle went downhill. Goblins and humans fell like flies. At one point, Harry, Ron and Hermione were fighting with each's back against the other two. The triangle formation was the most effective in this close combat situation.

At one point, Elder Ragnok limped over to Harry. Ragnok had lost his left arm, but the will in the elder's eyes was quite clear. He was going down with a fight. Ragnok pulled at Harry and said, "This battle can not be won. There is a secret passage beside the surface vault. Go through that. It will take you to The Leaky Cauldron."

"I am not leaving you alone" Harry argued back.

"There is no time for gallantry here now. We goblins are bound by a code to die here. You are not!! Save those you can, or there won't be any left" Ragnok went back into the battle after that.

Harry paused his fight looking at the remaining humans. _Not many_. George and Susan were fighting on the side and the unspeakables a few feet away. There were no other humans standing. Harry cursed, and cried out loud.

"Humans! Fall back"

He saw the four other humans, run over to the trio. "Lets go" Harry said as he ran towards the surface level vault. As they ran, there was an explosion behind them that threw them across the lobby.

Coughing loudly, Harry got up to survey what the effect was. Both unspeakables and George lay dead before them, and Susan was quite obviously injured. The crooked angle of Ron's left arm showed it was quite obviously broken. Hermione also sported many cuts and bruises.

Cursing loudly, Harry ran over to Susan, picked her up and ran into the vault.

"What happened?" Neville asked urgently.

"We lost" a quiet voice said from the floor. Everyone turned to see Luna with a dreamy look on her face. "They are coming"

"We are going out. Ragnok said there is a passage beside this vault; we are taking it to the Leaky Cauldron. We will see what happens from there" Harry said.

"The passage is over there" Luna pointed to a side in her dreamy voice, lying on the floor. "But it's made for goblins. It's a tight squeeze for humans, and no way the injured can be carried through" Luna said with a voice of finality.

"Damn!" Ron swore and added, "Then we hold our ground and fight here"

"No. You are going through that tunnel" Neville said.

"No Neville, you can't" Herimone, being the first to realize her friend's intent, cried out.

"What?" Harry snapped out.

"I am staying, while you three, along with Poppy are going through. You are the only uninjured here" Neville said with an absolute conviction of a born Gryffindor.

The crashes outside the vault entrance told them that the Goblins have lost and the minions were banging on their door to take the last survivors out.

"Go" Neville and Luna both shouted.

With one last nod to his friends, Harry and Ron turned to the tunnel. Hermione gave a quick hug to her friends and walked behind her friends, along with Madame Pomfrey

As soon as they made it into the tunnel, they could hear the cries and shouts of battle through the tunnel. They could see the light from spells behind them, followed by an eerie silence. The battle at Gringotts was over, and the demons achieved what they came for.

The golden trio and Pomfrey crept out of the tunnel, into a private booth at Leaky Cauldron. A quick survey showed the corpses of Tom the innkeeper, and several of his patrons scattered around the aft end of the inn, where they seem to have been cornered. Hermione quickly worked on making a ward as powerful as she could, in front of the corridor, as Harry and Ron were looked over by the school nurse.

They began talking about what can be done next. "The last of human kind" Pomfrey said bitterly. "Never in my long life did I ever think such a calamity would befall our world. And I do not clearly know why this is happening either"

Harry laughed bitterly, "Voldemort always used to say, there is no good or evil, only power, and those too weak to take it. Guess that is another thing he was wrong about. I don't know about good, but there definitely is evil, and has got enough power to whop the asses of all humans together in matter of hours"

"Hey. Listen" Hermione said suddenly. Everyone stilled perking up their ears

"What Hermione, I don't hear anything" Ron said after a moment.

"Exactly. Maybe all those demon things have left us" Hermione said excitedly.

"Only one way to find out" Harry said getting up.

"You are not going anywhere mister" Pomfrey said suddenly. "I am the oldest and have lived longer life than you kids. If there is anything out there, it's going to kill as soon as it sees a life, and I won't have one of you kids giving up your life for me. I go first"

Pomfrey stood up, and walked over to the ward. Hermione lifted the ward and Pomfrey walked out into the eerie silence. The moments passed slowly and painfully, as the trio waited for Pomfrey. They could not see her when she turned into the main hall of the Leaky.

Suddenly, they heard a shout from Pomfrey. "Noo!! Too Many!! Don't Com…" and a thump was heard. With hearts thumping, the trio leaned against the ward to get a view of what's happening in the main hall. There was a second thump as they saw something roll into their view. It looked like a quaffle in its color and shape, but something leaking from one end.

With a start they realized that it was Pomfrey's head. They jumped back with a cry, as they crawled as far away from the ward as they can. The eerie silence was deceiving. The minions seemed everywhere around them. There was no way out. The golden trio was truly stuck, alone, with nowhere to go, and a thin ward separating them from a sure-fire painful death. Or something far more terrible.

For several hours, the trio sat together in a close hunch, talking in whispers about what they could do. They were totally isolated from the rest of the world, with no food or resources, and only dead corpses of fellow Leaky Cauldron patrons as company.

"This really is the end, isn't it?" Ron said quietly.

"Somewhere up there, Tom Riddle must be laughing his ass of at our fate. I 'saved' the world from him, only to be delivered to a greater evil. If Voldemort was not dead, maybe Draco bloody Malfoy would not have become an unspeakable" Harry said bitterly.

"We can never know what would have happened if he was not destroyed, Harry. Don't beat yourself about something you couldn't have done anything" Hermione advised her friend.

"We can't be this way for long. We have to do something" Harry said

"It's a shame _Avada Kedavra_ doesn't work on oneself" Ron said bitterly.

"Not just that, no offensive spell works on oneself. It's a build-in safety feature" Hermione added.

Being so isolated, even dying was an option they could not completely utilize.

Hermione broke out in tears. "I always thought we three would be living together through thick or thin. I never thought we would be dying together too"

"What do you mean Hermione, we are not dying yet" Harry said passionately.

"There is no other way, Harry" Hermione said shaking her head

"Yes there is. We just have to think through this clearly and find a way" even as he said it, Harry knew that was not possible.

Ron laughed mirthlessly, "I can not let myself be turned into those bastardly demons, Harry. I believe there was honor and glory in dying in a fight. But there is no honor in dying as a human only to be reborn as a demon"

"One of us has to …"

"No. Please… No…" Harry begged, breaking down to tears, hugging his two closest and longest friends. Friends he thought more as family. His honorary brother and sister, whom he loved more than himself.

Yet what they said was true. He can not let them suffer in the hands of the demons. If the demons got to them, there is no telling what they could do. If they were lucky, they may just be killed. But if not… the prospect was far more gruesome than death.

After a long while, Harry said slowly, "I'll do it"

"But Harry, what about you" His sister asked him with concern.

"I'll figure out something" Harry snapped at her. He took a deep breath, let out a long sigh, and said slowly, "I'll figure out something"

"But I can not have you suffer. Not in the hands of those demons" Harry said looking into his friends' eyes.

Hermione hugged him tightly, and stifling tears. Ron followed giving him a hug, choked out, "You really are a great wizard, Harry. Great and Noble"

Ron and Hermione hugged each other, and kissed one last time as they closed their eyes.

_One green light._ Thud.

_Second green light._ Thud.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH" Harry cried out at the injustice of the universe. The fate's turn of hand that forced him to murder his own brother and sister. The pain he felt was far greater than when he heard another friend die to protect his back, or his school's fall, ministry's fall, even greater than when he heard about his girlfriend's death.

Through the pain came the rage. Rage against the evil that caused his misery. He knew, he could not live long with the guilt crashing down on him.

He got up and ran full-on through the ward Hermione had constructed, _while she was alive._ He shouted out to catch the attention of any demons in the vicinity. Egging them to attack him and put him out of his misery. But for once, no demon was around.

"Come on! You miserable beings. Take me. I am right here. COME GET ME!!" He shouted.

Wildly looking around, with blood shot eyes and grimy face, he ran to the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron, still shouting for any demons to take him. He burst out of the entrance, to a sight that stopped him right on his tracks.

There were muggle fire brigades with water cannons shooting forceful jets of water at the demons, and closely followed by the muggle military personnel firing their machine guns right into the disoriented demons. To his surprise, the demons did not get up.

One muggle officer ran over to him shouting, "Get back here. Get behind the line. What are you doing here? The evacuation trucks are waiting behind the water cannons. Are you alright? Is there anyone else inside? Hey kid. Snap out of it"

"What? How?" was all Harry could come up with.

The official pulled Harry to the side of the water cannon and said with a chuckle, "Some genius figured out that whatever those zombie things are, they get disoriented under water, and can be taken down with guns. You are safe now, kid. We will take care of you"

The world crashed around Harry Potter. His wand cluttered down to the sidewalk, and he fell down to his knees, and a wild cry of despair was all his anguished mind could come up with.

(A/N) There you go. This idea had been sitting in my mind for a long time. Anyone guess what/who was the real inspiration for this story?

(A/N2) whoever said its easy to clear writers block if you try writing something else... Didn't work yet. I still got the block on my other story. Frustrating when you can envision all the chapter after the one you are supposed to be writing, but no clue what to write in the next.. Argh!!


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